And look what the toff-hater’s own daughter says about his cowardly attack
THE daughter of anarchist Ian Bone has condemned his hatefilled tirade against Jacob ReesMogg’s family – and revealed he was an absent father to his own children.
Josephine Bone spoke out after the ranting Left-winger caused outrage by confronting the Tory MP and his wife on their doorstep and telling four of their six children that their father was ‘horrible’ and that ‘people hate him’.
She said Bone had not been part of her life since she was six and had not supported her mother and her siblings financially after her parents’ marriage ended.
Speaking exclusively to The Mail on Sunday Ms Bone, 47, said: ‘I was brought up by my mum. My dad moved out by the time I was six and he didn’t support his family. Not at all.
‘My mum moved us all up to Newcastle and he stayed in South
‘He should stay at home and put his slippers on’
Wales. I don’t think the relationship between her and my dad was very good but in truth I just don’t know. They’ve been apart for more than 40 years.’
Ms Bone, a senior executive in a global corporation, said she was shocked by her father’s attack on the Rees-Moggs and believes he has no real political agenda ‘apart from rabble-rousing and shouting at people he sees as toffs’.
Although Bone has publicly insisted he has no regrets about his hate-filled outburst, she said he apologised to her over the phone after she ‘told him off’.
Ms Bone said: ‘He should just stay at home and put his slippers on. He doesn’t listen to me. But I needed to make it absolutely clear that this kind of activity is something I could never support. He certainly knows what I think and he did apologise.
‘If he wants to shout at MPs on street corners, OK. But when their children get brought into it, that’s completely different.
‘He should have looked at that situation, with Mr Rees-Mogg, his wife, the children and the nanny, and then walked away. But he carried on and did something stupid.
‘It’s fair enough if people now say to him, “How would you like it if it was your children?”
‘I’m his child and I’ve got two girls. So it’s right that I address this question.
‘He’s been a total idiot. It was a silly thing to do but hopefully it will be forgotten and he will make different choices in the future.’
Ms Bone, who is married to a senior litigation lawyer, said her parents split up after what she called a ‘university relationship’.
She declined to give further details but said she remained in touch with her father because ‘despite everything he does, he’s my dad’. Speaking from her home, a period detached property in Portishead, near Bristol – bought for £500,000 seven years ago – she said Bone’s political views cut little ice with his own children.
‘My brothers, my sisters and me – we’ve all gone down the corporate path,’ she said. ‘ We’ve taken a different path. We have never been rebels like him.
‘He’s been to my house once but we don’t hang out. I only ever know what he’s been doing when he hits the headlines.
‘He doesn’t take into account what we’re going to think. His thing is standing on street corners and shouting at people.
‘ I don’t even know what his political views are apart from rabble-rousing and shouting at people he sees as toffs. It’s like a hobby to him.
‘He relishes the confrontation. He absolutely thrives on it. He particularly loves the publicity.
‘Perhaps sometimes there’s a genuine case and for all his shouting, up to this point, it hasn’t really been harmful. But this time it certainly was harmful.’
She said she had not been able to look at videos and news articles published last week showing the 71-year-old hurling abuse at
‘Rabble-rousing is like a hobby to him’
Old Etonian Mr Rees-Mogg, his family and their nanny outside their home in Westminster.
Leading a s mall group of activists, he told the youngsters: ‘Your daddy’s a totally horrible person. Lots of people don’t like your daddy, you know that? He’s probably not told you that. Lots of people hate him.’
Ms Bone said: ‘Fortunately Mr Rees-Mogg appeared quite sanguine about all this, and fair play to him.
‘ Apart from the obvious fact that my father’s actions were completely unacceptable, what on earth was the point?
‘All he has done is increase support and sympathy for Mr ReesMogg among the public. It’s just a big own goal.
‘But he is not stupid. He’s very intelligent, very worldly- wise, bright, articulate and he can be very funny. He’s never done anything like this before and I hope he never does it again.’
Bone admitted to The Mail on Sunday that he had been an absent father after splitting up from Ms Bone’s mother aged 25. ‘They moved from Swansea to Newcastle and I saw them rarely in that time,’ he said.
Outside the £400,000 detached home in South London he shares with his long-term partner Jane, he also confirmed his daughter had given him a stern talking to. ‘She wasn’t a happy bird,’ he said. ‘She gave me a right telling off.’